News from the EU

Directive on collective management of copyright and related rights and multi-territorial licensing: FAQs

The Europa website has published FAQs on the Directive on collective management of copyright and related rights and multi-territorial licensing.

Answers are provided in the release to the following questions:

1. What is copyright and what are the related rights?

2. How important are copyright and related rights for the European economy?

3. What is the collective management of copyright and related rights?

4. What is a collective management organisation?

5. How many collective management organisations are there in the EU?

6. What is the size of the market: how much money do collective management organisations manage?

7. What is a repertoire?

8. What is a reciprocal representation agreement?

9. Why did the Commission propose legislation?

10. Why did the Commission propose to impose rules on collective management organisations?

11. What are the specific objectives of the Directive?

12. Who will benefit from the Directive?

13. What are the expected impacts on collective management organisations?

14. How is music licensed for use on the internet today? What will change?

15. Why not one entry point – a single European licence?

16. What is the expected impact on access to cultural content and cultural diversity?

17. Which are the key measures to improve the governance of collective management organisations?

18. How will the financial management of collective management organisations improve?

19. What will improved transparency mean for rightholders, users and for the public?

20. How will innovative online services benefit from the Directive?

21. Why are different dispute settlement mechanisms foreseen for rightholders, members and users?

22. What is a multi-territorial licence of authors’ rights in musical works for online uses?

23. Who needs to get the multi-territorial licences of authors’ rights in musical works, and for what purposes?

24. Which collective management organisations will be able to grant multi-territorial licences of authors’ rights in musical works for online uses?

25. Why would only a limited number of collective management organisations be able to grant multi-territorial licences of authors’ rights in musical works for online uses?

26. How will Member States evaluate whether a collective management organisation has the capability to grant multi-territorial licences of authors’ rights in musical works for online uses?

27. What happens if a collective management organisation is not equipped to provide multi-territorial licences of authors’ rights in musical works for online uses?

28. Why the requirements of the Directive on multi-territorial licences for authors’ rights in musical works for online use partially do not apply to the licensing to broadcasters?

29. Who will benefit from multi-territorial licences of authors’ rights in musical works for online uses?

Once the Council has formally adopted the new legislation, the new rules will enter into force on the twentieth day following that of the publication of the Directive in the Official Journal of the European Union. Member States shall bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with the Directive within 24 months after its entry into force.

There’s more information about this here and the Europa press release is here.

Directive on criminal sanctions for market abuse – FAQs

The Europa website has also published FAQs on the Directive on criminal sanctions for market abuse.

The Frequently Asked Questions are:

1. Why are criminal sanctions needed for market abuse?

2. How are criminal offences defined at EU level?

3. Why was the existing Market Abuse Directive (MAD) reviewed?

4. Why is there a separate Directive on Criminal Sanctions for Market Abuse?

5. Which offences will be subject to criminal sanctions?

6. What are the levels and types of criminal sanctions required?

7. When would a market abuse offence be sanctioned by criminal law and when by administrative law sanctions?

8. How does the market abuse legislation tackle the abuse of benchmarks, such as LIBOR?

9. What are benchmarks and how are they dealt with in the directive on criminal sanctions against market abuse?

10. Why is the manipulation of benchmarks a cause for concern?

This Directive is subject to revisions by legal linguists and revisers, including where necessary alignment with the final political agreement on the Directive for Markets in Financial Instruments (MiFID II). Member States will have two years after the entry into force of the Directive to transpose the Directive on Criminal Sanctions for Market Abuse into national law.

New ECB guide will help assess security of internet payments

Yesterday, the European Central Bank (ECB) endorsed the “Assessment guide for the security of internet payments”, prepared by the European Forum on the Security of Retail Payments. The Guide intends to facilitate harmonised, efficient and comparable assessments conducted by the relevant supervisory or oversight authorities within the European Union and European Economic Area.

It outlines assessment questions for all aspects covered in the “Recommendations for the security of internet payments” that were approved by the Governing Council in January 2013. These include governance, risk management and mitigation, customer information and due diligence, the initiation, monitoring and authorisation of payments, protection of sensitive payment data, and customer awareness and education. The European Forum on the Security of Retail Payments has given special attention to providing further clarification with regard to the evaluation of strong customer authentication and the protection of sensitive payment data.

The Guide will support governance authorities of payment schemes, as well as internet payment service providers, in implementing the recommendations by 1 February 2015.

The European Forum on the Security of Retail Payments is a voluntary cooperative initiative between relevant European authorities, in particular supervisors of payment service providers and overseers. It aims to promote knowledge and understanding of issues related to the security of electronic retail payment services and instruments.

Martin Pollins is a Chartered Accountant with wide experience in corporate finance and business management. He holds a number of directorships and has served on the boards of several companies, including those listed on the London Stock Exchange, AIM and OFEX.

He was a Council member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales from 1988 to 1996.

Martin Pollins ran his own firm based in Sussex and was the first Accountancy firm in the UK to advertise on television and Martin went on to create and launch the CharterGroup Partnership (the UK's first Accountancy network) and then LawGroup UK (one of the largest networks of lawyers in the country).

Martin started work on the Bizezia concept in 1996, developing the broad range of information resources and products over the past 18 years.